Yardley is one of those classic, trusty brands where you can be assured of quality. It’s a refreshing change to find a range of fragrance that isn’t constantly trying to reinvent the wheel. As trends come and go, fans of classics can often find themselves left out, but we can always fall on back on Yardley to provide us with the traditional, simple scents that every fragrance wardrobe needs.

Yardley English Rose is a simple rose done very well. It goes on at first spray smelling like delicate rose breath sweets, which at first made me think of Parma violets, but this is purely rose from start to finish. Despite being an Eau de Toilette, it is light enough to feel like a refreshing eau de cologne, but the lovely light airiness sticks around much longer than it would for a cologne.

On Fragrantica, there are several notes listed:

Rose and Geranium are in the top notes, white flowers are in the middle and the finish consists of spice, musk and woods. To me, that hint of geranium provides the spice, although the rose is dominant throughout. The finish is a beautiful clean musk that had me sniffing my arm and wondering when I’d sprayed white musk on that day. Coupled with the roses, it makes a beautifully feminine accord.

This beautiful rose is ideal for layering with musks or even a heavy oriental- it could lighten it up for daytime wear. Yardley English Rose works best for me in summer though, wearing florals and smelling like them too.

This is unbeatable value at around £10 for 50ml, and sometimes the 125ml bottle is around that price too, if you shop around.

I recently bought a bottle of Yria from Yves Rocher, at the same time as I bought a bottle of Yves Rocher Clea. Both were a blind buy and the special offer that week was buy one get one free- hence I bagged both scents for a total of £15.

You may recall my earlier review of Clea, elsewhere in this blog, which I liked very much. (It smells a bit like Dove!) I was immediately taken with Yria. Thoughts of long lost gem Avon Foxfire came to mind as I smelled it. It is feminine and classically “perfumey” i.e it smells how I imagined perfume ought to smell when I was growing up. It’s a broad combination, and I suppose, if forced into a corner, I would describe it as an Oriental. However it’s a light floral Oriental that retains it prettiness throughout.

It opens with fresh citrus florals and has a certain zing when it goes on. However, that zing is no hesperide: right from the start the floral notes (all the big hitters are present and correct) warm up the citruses, so this doesn’t smell too eau de cologne.

Once the flowers move in, and you can particularly notice the Gardenia and Rose, the scent starts to warm up with a little Amber and Patchouli. With the juxtaposition of Magnolia over Patchouli, there are hints of Narciso Rodriguez For Her and Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely. However, Yria has the Amber and the Sandalwood to make the base warmer and more of an evening scent. I have to say, I adore this, and its lovely bottle. It’s very versatile.

You could wear it to work (but go easy first thing in the morning) and wear it in the evening too. It’s a warm Oriental lite with enough flowers to stop things getting to heavy. Longevity is great at around six or seven hours, and quality is superb. I can’t believe it was the price it was. It knocks the socks off most of the modern High Street scents I have smelled in the last year.

Since starting my blog, I have smelled hundreds of perfumes that have been completely new to me, the good (Amouage Dia), the bad (Halston Catalyst) and the ugly (Thierry Mugler Womanity).

I have smelled expensive scents that smell cheap and cheap scents that smell expensive. My current perfume crush is Carillon Pour Un Ange which retails at around 99GBP for 50ml. I have only small phials of it. For Now.

However, there is a place for inexpensive every day perfume that costs so little that you don’t get all miserly and anxious when you’re down to the last cenitmetre. There are several excellent options on the High Street right now. Marks and Spencerare doing pretty good things with their affordable range. I have already reviewed Per Una Originale and I have been told that Per Una Exquisite is a dead ringer for the much mourned Quelque Fleurs by Houbigant. The Body Shop stocks trusty White Musk oil, as well as their Scents of the Worldrange (very pretty but longevity not great on me).

I have heard good things about the Next range of fragrances but had not encountered them myself until recently. Yesterday I treated myself to an inexpensive bottle of Next Just Pink. And it’s just fine.

For an everyday office scent, this fits the bill. It won’t break the bank at 7.50GBP for 30ml and if you find someone who loves it, they do admirable gift sets too. It has three notes, according to Fragrantica: Green notes, red fruit and floral notes, so it’s pretty vague.

Here’s what I think it smells like: Roses, Peony, Soft Musk, Freesia and a whiff of Violets.

It’s pretty, in a clean laundry sort of way and won’t offend anyone. It would also make a good fragrance for a young teen just starting out on their perfume Odyssey.

However, many reviewers compare Just Pink favourably to Ralph Lauren Romance. I have a sample of this so I tried it side by side. Ralph Lauren has slightly more depth, but surprise! Our budget buy outlasted it on longevity. Note by note, there wasn’t much in it.

There’s a lot to be said for a well made, High Street perfume with a friendly price tag. I’ve smelled no end of mainstream new launch fragrances in the £30 for 30ml price bracket that have no more to offer than this. Next Just Pink is going in the handbag. *cough* along with the other seven I already have in there. Must get round to sorting it out.

Back in 2005, I often saw photos of Kate Moss dating Pete Doherty and despaired of them ever finding a bar of soap or some toothpaste. She appears to have cleaned up her act since, although I can’t help thinking that this enigmatic stalwart of the modelling world probably smells of cigarettes and Glastonbury. She does scrub up well for work though, so if I focus on her indisputably glamorous side, I can probably enjoy her fragrance: Kate by Kate Moss.

The packaging is pretty and retro in a seventies sort of way and opening notes are delicate and pretty- you can immediately pick out the pretty Peony and Violet Leaf. It is an inoffensive scent, ideal for office wear, and mild enough to squoosh on in the morning. And squoosh you must! This scent is fleeting and faint, and needs a good blast in order to make even an apologetic impact, though impact may be too strong a word. One spray will not pass muster. Use lavishly and you still won’t offend even the most delicate of asthmatics.

I was wary when I saw Pineapple in the top notes, but I can safely report that there wasn’t so much of a hint of it, nor should there be (great on pizza, terrible in fragrance!) Base notes allege to be Musk, Cedar and Patchouli, but if this ever lasts long enough to contain base notes, I’ll eat my cat.

Several reviewers on Fragrantica have compared this to Stella McCartney’s Stella in Two Peony. I have smelled both, and there are indeed similarities. I can tell you though that the difference is, unsurprisingly, that Stella costs more and lasts longer. You get what you pay for in this case.

However, Kate by Kate Moss is harmless and inoffensive, unlike its namesake, who I always thought was more of a L’Air de Rien sort of girl. It’s as if some one has tried to tame a wild girl and make her be a secretary. Worth a tenner though, and we should always be grateful about absent pineapple.